CALAMITIES
Had Fett been anyone else, he would have smiled. IG-88 probably thought that it had been well hidden, flying its ship along the planet's atmosphere. It was a very difficult trick to pull off, one that required droid-like efficiency. Too high, the craft would burn out of the atmosphere entirely, too low and the ship would fly straight through the atmosphere and the resulting flare would show the ship up on every sensor scan in the system. Still, it was enough to fool most people. Unfortunately for IG-88, Boba Fett was not in the class of most people. He knew that, after his decoy ship had been destroyed by the fake *IG-2000*, the droid must have been somewhere in the system. Pulling off that precise realspace reversion required, even for a droid, some pre-calculated variables. The most likely place for the droid to be hiding was on the edge of the planet's atmosphere and, with a droid, the most likely place was always where they were.
That was the problem with droid's logic, when you knew how it worked you could know their next move before they did. And that was precisely what Fett had done.
By timing his attack with Bossk's entry; in a distant and very small corner of his mind, one reserved for admiration of other sentients, he was impressed that Bossk had figured out the clue so quickly, although, knowing the Trandoshan, he had probably just followed someone here; by timing his attack with Bossk he had managed to make IG-88's attack useless. The droid had come rushing out of hiding to launch an attack, just to see its prey scurry off after Fett. Now, Fett was going to make it pay for its mistake.
Turning *Slave I* back on the droid's ship, Fett moved in for the kill. As the two vessels shot past, Boba Fett activated his ship's tractor beam. Both ships lurched, then *IG-2000* started to move backwards, the way *Slave I* was going. Straight towards *Hound's Tooth*.
IG-88 could clearly tell what was about to happen, the ION engines of its ship strained to overload, but it was no use. The ship could not resist Fett, no one could.
Boba Fett calmly observed the scene in front of him. *IG-2000* was being forced, at full speed, towards the immobilized *Hound's Tooth*. The droid's ship was pointed away from the Trandoshan's, so it couldn't vaporize it with anything out of its forward facing arsenal. The only possible conclusion, one that was going to be reached in a few seconds, was the collision between *IG-2000* and *Hound's Tooth*, The deaths of the two bounty hunters, neither of whom Fett would mourn, was an inescapable conclusion. As inescapable as anything that Fett decreed.
With the single wave of a hand, the Emperor could sentence any creature alive to a quick, or painful, death. The same power was held by Boba Fett, the differences were that Fett did it on a more personal basis, and the Emperor was prone to doing it a lot more often than Fett. That was one of the main differences between Boba Fett and many of the other, most powerful beings in the galaxy. Creatures like Palpatine and Jabba the Hutt were know, renowned even, for their tendency to simply kill for pleasure, or worse, no reason at all. Fett only killed when it was necessary. Not that he was in any way hesitant to do so, or unwilling to kill as anything but a last resort, but he only killed when it was required to turn a profit. Likewise, if getting paid depended upon handing over live merchandise, he would defend it with his life.
Still, in this situation, if the quickest, easiest and most effective way of disposing of these two hunters was their demise, then that would be what Fett would arrange. With that, Fett, like some kind of pagan god, decided that they were to die. Reaching out, he poured more power into the thrusters, speeding Bossk and IG-88 to their doom.
It had taken only two minutes. After that, Aurra Sing had collapsed defeated on the field and Ch'tek had hauled her back to her ship and put her in the same holding pen that she kept her prisoners in. She had been completely taken in by his charade; he was almost disappointed in her. When he had unleashed his true power, she had been so completely off guard that she had fallen flat on her face simply feeling his connection with the Force. And now she had paid for that lack of concentration. The green Jedi was sure that Aurra may not have been so eager to tangle with him in the first place if she had know of his more recent escapades. In the last two years, he had met Darth Vader no less than five times in combat, besting the Dark Lord each and every time.
There was a time when Ch'tek would have been grateful for the fact that the Sith, at least, had proved a worthy adversary. After centuries of Jedi training, however, he had come to derive no pleasure from battle. He would much rather be left in peace. After Aurra found him, however, he knew that he had to leave. He couldn't keep her on Drumshgill, nor could he let her go and tell others, more powerful that her, that she knew his whereabouts.
She may have pride, but she is willing to swallow it in order to profit.
A deep disgust of bounty hunters welled in his throat, along with a pang of regret that Aurra had joined their ranks. She would have made a fine Jedi. If she had only managed to conquer her fear.
Ch'tek pushed away his thoughts. They were thoughts for later. Right now he was charged with the task of getting this ship off the ground and finding somewhere else to hide from the Empire.
As he stepped into the cockpit he noticed a flashing light in the center of the board. Stretching out with the Force to discern its purpose, Ch'tek could suddenly see someone. Focusing, he could tell that it was a hologram, saying something that he couldn't hear. Reaching out, Ch'tek flicked a switch on the Comm board. The same hologram appeared on the console and started to speak.
"Congratulations, huntress Sing. You have been chosen for the honor of participating in Master Orba's latest contest. The winner of this contest, which has been designed to tax both the mind and the body, will receive the hansom bounty of 1 million credits. The contest will be held in stages. Complete each stage to move on to the next. This is stage 1. Let the contest begin!" The Twi'lek threw up his hands and was replaced by the image of a stylized 0 which started slowly rotating on its axis.
"An enticing bounty, isn't it?" The voice came from behind him. Ch'tek leapt up out of the chair and spun around to face Aurra Sing and the business ends of two of her blasters. Ch'tek had no room to move, even to duck, when Aurra gently stroked the firing studs. Two red bolts leapt from her guns and straight into his scaly head. The Jedi's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell backwards onto the console, then slid down onto the floor. Aurra smiled, holstered her blasters and reached for the nav computer controls. Didn't that reptilian fool even suspect that she would have had override commands built into her own computer systems? Aurra shook her head as she sat down. She, for one, wasn't at all surprised that the Jedi had been slaughtered; with their belief that no one in the in the galaxy was as capable as they were she was amazed that they had lasted as long as they had. Reaching out, Aurra pulled down the hyperspace levers and made the jump to lightspeed, still marveling at the incompetence of the Jedi knights and wondering how far one million Credits would get her towards killing the last of them. Probably far enough.
I sincerly apologize for the extrmly long time it has taken for me to post this, writing two stories at once takes longer than I had ever realized. And, while recovering from a near-fatal case of writers block......
Really, the fanfictions nearly didn't survive. Fortunatly, they did. Anyway, I'm rambling. I must use this time to write more of the stories. "Blue Blood" has now ben posted, if you are interested. See you later.
Please Review.....
Had Fett been anyone else, he would have smiled. IG-88 probably thought that it had been well hidden, flying its ship along the planet's atmosphere. It was a very difficult trick to pull off, one that required droid-like efficiency. Too high, the craft would burn out of the atmosphere entirely, too low and the ship would fly straight through the atmosphere and the resulting flare would show the ship up on every sensor scan in the system. Still, it was enough to fool most people. Unfortunately for IG-88, Boba Fett was not in the class of most people. He knew that, after his decoy ship had been destroyed by the fake *IG-2000*, the droid must have been somewhere in the system. Pulling off that precise realspace reversion required, even for a droid, some pre-calculated variables. The most likely place for the droid to be hiding was on the edge of the planet's atmosphere and, with a droid, the most likely place was always where they were.
That was the problem with droid's logic, when you knew how it worked you could know their next move before they did. And that was precisely what Fett had done.
By timing his attack with Bossk's entry; in a distant and very small corner of his mind, one reserved for admiration of other sentients, he was impressed that Bossk had figured out the clue so quickly, although, knowing the Trandoshan, he had probably just followed someone here; by timing his attack with Bossk he had managed to make IG-88's attack useless. The droid had come rushing out of hiding to launch an attack, just to see its prey scurry off after Fett. Now, Fett was going to make it pay for its mistake.
Turning *Slave I* back on the droid's ship, Fett moved in for the kill. As the two vessels shot past, Boba Fett activated his ship's tractor beam. Both ships lurched, then *IG-2000* started to move backwards, the way *Slave I* was going. Straight towards *Hound's Tooth*.
IG-88 could clearly tell what was about to happen, the ION engines of its ship strained to overload, but it was no use. The ship could not resist Fett, no one could.
Boba Fett calmly observed the scene in front of him. *IG-2000* was being forced, at full speed, towards the immobilized *Hound's Tooth*. The droid's ship was pointed away from the Trandoshan's, so it couldn't vaporize it with anything out of its forward facing arsenal. The only possible conclusion, one that was going to be reached in a few seconds, was the collision between *IG-2000* and *Hound's Tooth*, The deaths of the two bounty hunters, neither of whom Fett would mourn, was an inescapable conclusion. As inescapable as anything that Fett decreed.
With the single wave of a hand, the Emperor could sentence any creature alive to a quick, or painful, death. The same power was held by Boba Fett, the differences were that Fett did it on a more personal basis, and the Emperor was prone to doing it a lot more often than Fett. That was one of the main differences between Boba Fett and many of the other, most powerful beings in the galaxy. Creatures like Palpatine and Jabba the Hutt were know, renowned even, for their tendency to simply kill for pleasure, or worse, no reason at all. Fett only killed when it was necessary. Not that he was in any way hesitant to do so, or unwilling to kill as anything but a last resort, but he only killed when it was required to turn a profit. Likewise, if getting paid depended upon handing over live merchandise, he would defend it with his life.
Still, in this situation, if the quickest, easiest and most effective way of disposing of these two hunters was their demise, then that would be what Fett would arrange. With that, Fett, like some kind of pagan god, decided that they were to die. Reaching out, he poured more power into the thrusters, speeding Bossk and IG-88 to their doom.
It had taken only two minutes. After that, Aurra Sing had collapsed defeated on the field and Ch'tek had hauled her back to her ship and put her in the same holding pen that she kept her prisoners in. She had been completely taken in by his charade; he was almost disappointed in her. When he had unleashed his true power, she had been so completely off guard that she had fallen flat on her face simply feeling his connection with the Force. And now she had paid for that lack of concentration. The green Jedi was sure that Aurra may not have been so eager to tangle with him in the first place if she had know of his more recent escapades. In the last two years, he had met Darth Vader no less than five times in combat, besting the Dark Lord each and every time.
There was a time when Ch'tek would have been grateful for the fact that the Sith, at least, had proved a worthy adversary. After centuries of Jedi training, however, he had come to derive no pleasure from battle. He would much rather be left in peace. After Aurra found him, however, he knew that he had to leave. He couldn't keep her on Drumshgill, nor could he let her go and tell others, more powerful that her, that she knew his whereabouts.
She may have pride, but she is willing to swallow it in order to profit.
A deep disgust of bounty hunters welled in his throat, along with a pang of regret that Aurra had joined their ranks. She would have made a fine Jedi. If she had only managed to conquer her fear.
Ch'tek pushed away his thoughts. They were thoughts for later. Right now he was charged with the task of getting this ship off the ground and finding somewhere else to hide from the Empire.
As he stepped into the cockpit he noticed a flashing light in the center of the board. Stretching out with the Force to discern its purpose, Ch'tek could suddenly see someone. Focusing, he could tell that it was a hologram, saying something that he couldn't hear. Reaching out, Ch'tek flicked a switch on the Comm board. The same hologram appeared on the console and started to speak.
"Congratulations, huntress Sing. You have been chosen for the honor of participating in Master Orba's latest contest. The winner of this contest, which has been designed to tax both the mind and the body, will receive the hansom bounty of 1 million credits. The contest will be held in stages. Complete each stage to move on to the next. This is stage 1. Let the contest begin!" The Twi'lek threw up his hands and was replaced by the image of a stylized 0 which started slowly rotating on its axis.
"An enticing bounty, isn't it?" The voice came from behind him. Ch'tek leapt up out of the chair and spun around to face Aurra Sing and the business ends of two of her blasters. Ch'tek had no room to move, even to duck, when Aurra gently stroked the firing studs. Two red bolts leapt from her guns and straight into his scaly head. The Jedi's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell backwards onto the console, then slid down onto the floor. Aurra smiled, holstered her blasters and reached for the nav computer controls. Didn't that reptilian fool even suspect that she would have had override commands built into her own computer systems? Aurra shook her head as she sat down. She, for one, wasn't at all surprised that the Jedi had been slaughtered; with their belief that no one in the in the galaxy was as capable as they were she was amazed that they had lasted as long as they had. Reaching out, Aurra pulled down the hyperspace levers and made the jump to lightspeed, still marveling at the incompetence of the Jedi knights and wondering how far one million Credits would get her towards killing the last of them. Probably far enough.
I sincerly apologize for the extrmly long time it has taken for me to post this, writing two stories at once takes longer than I had ever realized. And, while recovering from a near-fatal case of writers block......
Really, the fanfictions nearly didn't survive. Fortunatly, they did. Anyway, I'm rambling. I must use this time to write more of the stories. "Blue Blood" has now ben posted, if you are interested. See you later.
Please Review.....
